


ara ma'athlan vhenas

by missveils (Missveils)



Series: Inquisitor Dáire Lavellan [8]
Category: Dragon Age (Video Games), Dragon Age - All Media Types, Dragon Age: Inquisition
Genre: Companion Lavellan (Dragon Age), Gen, Lavellan siblings, Parent Lavellan (Dragon Age), Post-Dragon Age: Inquisition - Trespasser DLC, Siblings, but blackwall is not in here, but thats his babie, technically blackwall/lavellan
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-05-23
Updated: 2020-05-23
Packaged: 2021-03-03 03:01:35
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,432
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24343942
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Missveils/pseuds/missveils
Summary: Ex-inquisitor Dáire Lavellan's sister has a baby and he goes meet her, and they talk about names, what it means to be Dalish and agents of Fen'Harel. Fun times.In this house half-elven babies have pointy ears and the historical Aveline was half-elf.
Series: Inquisitor Dáire Lavellan [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1694902
Comments: 1
Kudos: 7





	ara ma'athlan vhenas

“What is her name?” 

Ellara rocked the baby slowly against her chest, with confident arms that had done it dozens of times with babies and children born in the clan. Both the sun and the voices and music from the Market District pooled in through the open window, with the bluest summer sky as a backdrop. Rinna, the elven woman that had helped his sister through the birth and the first days of life of the baby was napping on a rocking chair on the other side of the bed. 

“We were thinking, maybe… Aveline.” She looked down at the baby, and color started creeping up her cheeks. 

“You don’t like it?”

“I… was actually the one that suggested it. But…” She bit her lip.

Dáire rested his hand on her shoulder. 

“But it’s not a Dalish name? You know you don’t-”

“I know. It just doesn’t make it any easier. That she won’t be Dalish, or grow up in the clan with the other children, listening to your stories. Or that, even growing up around humans they won’t accept her either. That all she will know about her culture is going to be what I remember learning which will be inaccurate, or incomplete.” She looked up at him. “Or, who knows anymore, maybe completely wrong. Ah, no da’len, it’s okay, shh…”

As she spoke, she slowly raised her voice from the whispers they had been exchanging. The baby stirred in her arms, startled by the noise, and whimpered. Rinna woke up almost immediately and walked up to them.

Dáire had only met the girl a few days ago, when he had arrived in Kirkwall, but apparently she had run into his sister in the market, noticed she was not from here, and offered to help her through the end of her pregnancy. She was a very young girl, born and raised in the city during what had probably been its darkest years, but she had said _“I have five sisters, all of them with several children of their own. I’ve done this more times than I can count with my fingers.”_ which was reassuring enough. She had also said _“My mother always said being born in Kirkwall is bad luck.”_ which was… not as reassuring in general.

“Want me to put her to sleep so you can rest, serah?”

Ellara shook her head, smiling at her. They both seemed to have grown very close during the last months but there was something strange about the way Ellara spoke with Rinna. He had seen how Ellara acted around her best friends, and this was not it. 

“It’s okay, Rinna, you get some rest. You have slept less than me this week.”

The girl walked back to the chair, rocking gently while she looked at the sky through the window, a dreamy expression on her face. Ellara changed the baby’s position in her arms and started singing a song under her breath:

_Elgara vallas, da'len  
_ _Melava somniar_  
_Mala taren aravas  
_ _Ara ma'desen melar_

Without thinking, Dáire joined her singing. He didn’t really know the exact lyrics as much as he knew the melody, but he half-hummed half-sang until the end of the song with her. 

“I’m surprised you remember that,” Ellara whispered once the baby was asleep again. She was speaking in elven, now that Rinna was awake.

“I can’t even remember hearing it before.”

“I don’t think you’ve heard it since you were five. You looked so much like her when you were a baby.” 

Silence fell. Ellara seemed less troubled than before, but her brow was still furrowed in worry. There were probably a thousand more things worrying her about a half-human baby that she was not telling him. He was not sure if he could offer much reassurance. She noticed him looking at the baby.

“Do you want to hold her?” 

Dáire raised his only arm. 

“Do you trust me with her?”

Ellara contained a laugh and wrapped the child in the bedsheet. She then tied the bedsheet over Dáire’s shoulder, as a sort of sling, while she rested the baby on his arm.

“This way your arm shouldn’t get too tired.”

Feeling how light she was, Dáire wondered how that could happen. He had helped with the children of the clan, along with his sister, but he had never held a baby so young before. He marveled at the fast-beating heart over his arm, the calm sleeping face, the freckled nose, and the slightly pointed ears. 

And he was not the only one who, at that moment, was taking in the sight of this new life. 

By now he already knew the feeling. A thousand thoughts, eyes, lives, pushing forward, and into the surface of his mind. He let them break the surface, enough to see (perceive? feel?) his niece. They whispered into his ear as they submerged again. 

After what could have been a few seconds, or several hours, Dáire came to himself and to Ellara standing half out of bed with an arm outstretched towards the baby. He shot her a reassuring look, and she sat back in her bed slowly.

“You were doing the… whispering thing.”

“Sorry. It’s fine. They wanted to see.”

“That doesn’t sound as good as you think it does, Dáire.”

Still, she leaned back against the headboard again and closed her eyes. She looked like she hadn’t slept in days. 

Dáire rocked the baby in his arm, listening to the faint whispers in the back of his head. He started humming softly. And the humming turned into a quiet song. 

“I’ve never heard that song before.” his sister whispered when the song ended.

“I don’t think anyone has in a very long, long time.”

“I don’t really understand the words, either. Did the… Vir’Abelasan teach you that?”

He nodded. 

“I think so, just now.”

“Do they know she is…?”

Dáire nodded again and could see the change in his sister’s expression. Her eyes softened and for a moment welled up with tears that she made sure to blink away as fast as they had appeared. Maybe this was the reassurance he could offer. That the memories of a thousand ancient elves living in him thought this new life was a reason for joy, and for pride, and that they both deserved to rest easy. 

“You know, I will stay here for as long as you need me to. And I will tell her all the stories I know. Even the ones you always found boring.”

This time Ellara couldn’t contain the laugh or the tears, which she still wiped swiftly. 

“I would never think of tying you to this city. But you know my home is always your home. That reminds me…”

Something changed in her expression. Her jaw clenched, her eyes steeled. It was enough to have Dáire’s hand twitch towards his staff.

“Rinna.”

The girl stood up immediately, instinctively moving towards the baby in Dáire’s arms. 

“Stop. Rinna, I don’t think I will be needing your services anymore.”

“Serah Lavellan?”

“I thank you for your help. You can send my thanks to him too. You can also tell him that if he wishes to know anything about… Aveline he is welcome to come meet her in person.”

The girl’s eyes darted between her and Dáire, as she wrung her apron in her hands.

“I don’t understand…”

“Oh drop it.” Ellara was speaking in elven now. “Your Marcher accent is not very good. I’ve helped bring several children into the world. Did you really think I would not recognize Dalish remedies or rituals? I know you’re not a city elf, Rinna. If that’s your name.”

The girl’s expression had changed to something inscrutable. She suddenly seemed older, her posture stiff like a soldier. 

“Now run along. Be glad I’m letting you go.”

The girl bowed gracefully and walked out of the room without making a sound. 

When she was out of sight, Ellara fell back against the headboard again. Dáire realised he was holding his staff and he let it go, placing his hand under the baby again. 

“… How did you know?”

“You know, you don’t spend three years with Leliana without picking up some things.”

Dáire chuckled and they fell silent as he sang again to his niece. Ellara had closed her eyes and was breathing slowly. The baby opened her eyes but just stared at him with big blue eyes. He was not sure if Ellara was asleep, or if he was talking to her or to her child, but he whispered:

“I think Aveline is a great name.”

**Author's Note:**

> Inquisitor Dáire Lavellan is @littlegumshoe's (on tumblr)  
> Ellara is mine =3
> 
> the lullaby ellara sings is: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Zl3CmzQY1So
> 
> also some art by littlegumshoe ouo
> 
>   
> 
> 
> this one has a continuation here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24344884


End file.
